


troubleshooting

by kyaku



Category: Fantastic Four (2015)
Genre: Ben Is Observant, Falling In Love, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Reed Is Oblivious, everything is fine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-13
Updated: 2015-11-13
Packaged: 2018-05-01 09:08:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5200226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kyaku/pseuds/kyaku
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Precanon/potentially-AU. The teleporter blows up, and Ben falls first. None of this is actually bad.</p>
            </blockquote>





	troubleshooting

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheoMiller](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheoMiller/gifts).



> taking a quick break from exit wounds to prove to all y'all that I CAN in fact write happy stuff. there is no catch. just enjoy

It goes like this: they're fourteen-almost-fifteen in the garage, and the teleporter's acting up more than usual, to the point where Ben bites the bullet and actually voices his unease. But Reed says it's fine, true to form, and Ben believes him right up until the moment said teleporter decides to explode.

At least, Ben's pretty sure that's what happened. Because he knows there've been close calls before – the scars on the side of Reed's head are testament enough to that. His friend's nigh-automatic mantra of “don't blow up” every time they run a test doesn't help. But still, it's not as though he actually saw the explosion.

No, it's more as if he'd heard it coming, his instincts feeding him a steady stream of _something bad is coming soon,_ giving him just enough time to tackle Reed to the ground before everything went off.

It doesn't last more than a minute, the two of them crumpled on the ground while the teleporter flings shrapnel and the lights above burst into sparks. Ben screws his eyes shut and shifts just enough to keep himself in between Reed and everything else, waiting out the chaos until the world settles down around them.

Afterwards, the room is quiet. Once he trusts that it's safe, Ben plants a hand on the floor, pushes himself up gingerly, and looks down.

Reed's beneath him, his face flushed, glasses askew and breathing shallow, and it's not often that Ben has cause to use the word _starry-eyed_ but he's pretty sure that's what's happening right now. Because of course Reed's just exhilarated, keyed up on the kind of rush that comes with almost dying, in love with science even when it's literally blowing up in his face-

\- and Ben thinks, _oh_ , and immediately rolls off Reed to the side, because since when did kissing his best friend start sounding like a wholly reasonable idea.

They stay there for a while, the lights flickering weakly overhead, an errant piece of the teleporter digging into Ben's back where he's lying on the ground, and then time starts up again and he puts the whole thing out of his mind. He chalks it up to adrenaline and files it next to all the other things he's not sure how to think about, just yet, and if he catches himself now and again watching Reed a little too close, a little too long, it's just the usual concern behind it. That's what he'll think, afterwards.

(Someday later, he'll wonder how he ever looked at Reed any other way.)

(Someday later, he'll realize when Reed starts looking, too.)

**Author's Note:**

> okay so this happened because citizen aline heroscafe requested happy headcanons and while I was sitting on that she then went out and made a god damn _fanvid_ for exit wounds. and like. I had to step up my game, so happy headcanons - > happy notfic -> happy actual fic and now here we are with these smol teens in love. 
> 
> this is a scene I've had on hand for a while - one of my many "how does ben realize he's in love with his ridiculous best friend" concepts, because let's be real at some point ben had to realize that his autopilot impulse in the face of danger was to _protect reed immediately_. don't know if this fic is canon to any of my other proper AUs as The Grand Love Realization but it's precanon so it can technically fit in anywhere. including in an AU where nothing bad happens and nobody gets turned into rocks, so you don't even have to be all "BUT EVENTUAL SADS" about it. c'mon people. everything is fine. there is no need to be upset. 
> 
> (hang out with me at kyakuuu.tumblr.com)


End file.
